TIFF: Sarah Paulson Emerges in Best Actress Race with Blue Jay

After a defining year among Sarah Paulson’s ever-evolving career, one which saw the performer cake walk to dual Emmy nominations for her portrayal of Marcia Clark on FX’s The People v. O.J. Simpson and Sally McKenna on the network’s American Horror Story,she is — if there’s any shred of justice left in the Oscar race — poised to add another monumental achievement on her mantel as a potential dark horse contender for Best Actress thanks to a stunning turn in Alex Lehmann’s Blue Jay.

Following the film’s world premiere last night at the Toronto International Film Festival, which saw sustained applause and passionate response from the general public (those sitting around me were gushing, and I’ve never seen so many people vote for a film to win the People’s Choice Award as the screening let out), it’d be foolish to count Paulson out of the race based on the size of her film alone, even as potentially monolithic contenders (Natalie Portman in Jackie, Emma Stone in La La Land) rise around her.

The film, written by Paulson’s co-star, Mark Duplass, follows a pair of high school sweethearts who cross paths after they, by chance, reconnect after traveling back to the small town where they grew up. Their history as a couple unravels before our eyes as they explore the adults they’ve both become over the course of a single evening, and we come to understand the emotional lows (and soaring highs) that punctuated their time together.

While Duplass gives an unexpectedly deep, dark performance unlike anything we’ve yet to see from him, it’s Paulson’s work that stands out as the film’s strongest asset. With an Oct. 7 theatrical release date looming, Blue Jay has time to build momentum heading into the awards race. This is a film that flashes with hues of Payne, Linklater, and great French dramas of the 50s and 60s while forging ahead with an intimate poignancy all its own. While it’ll undoubtedly hit with indie audiences upon its limited release, Paulson’s trajectory in the awards race will be made or broken by critical reception and subsequent year-end critics awards, that is if the relatively untested (in terms of the awards race) distributor, The Orchard, throws some campaign weight in her corner (they’d be wise to). This is a performance (and a film) that could easily find its place among the winners’ circle at the LA or New York critics’ ceremonies.

Elsewhere in the category, Jackie, Natalie Portman’s Jacqueline Kennedy biopic (it’s really so much more than that) finally found a distributor in Fox Searchlight, with a Dec. 9 release date secured for the Pablo Larrain-directed film. Hot off a win for Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival and a wave of critical praise after its North American premiere at TIFF, Jackie has, after a handful of screenings, become an undeniable phenomenon, and without question showcases the best work of Portman’s career as the iconic widow navigating the aftermath of her husband’s 1963 assassination.

The film is a complex masterpiece that takes advantage of the medium in ways only the smartest biopics can; this is not an austere, blow-by-blow retread concerned with historical “accuracy” in the traditional sense, this is an artist’s vision, a comment on the search for the truth as it blends with the fairy tales of the lives of others, at once criticizing our willingness to accept the stage show politics often present while championing the right to question our engagement with the version of history that’s presented vs. the truth that’s lived.

With a distributor like Fox on its side, Jackie should be considered a serious Best Picture contender. Mica Levi’s haunting string arrangements, Noah Oppenheim’s probing screenplay, and Stephane Fontaine’s cinematography are, additionally, some of the most stirring technical achievements of any film released this year, and will factor into their respective awards races in due time.

Though Paulson and Portman have shaken up the race in their own right, mainstay contenders like Emma Stone in La La Land and Aquarius‘ Sonia Braga continue their forward momentum in the Best Actress category with strong showings at TIFF, while unseen contenders like Viola Davis (Fences) and Jessica Chastain (Miss Sloane) still hover on the edge.

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Once, when he was three, Joey Nolfi fancied himself as an exotic type and boldly told someone that he was “from North America.” He’s taken that status as self-appointed ambassador of the North American people and built with it a budding career in entertainment journalism. In other words: he’s written about awards season, film, pop culture, and the arts for a variety of publications including Entertainment Weekly, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, AFROPUNK, East End Fashion Magazine, and Naima Mora Online. He also acts, makes films, moonlights as a DJ/general nightlife legend, and can’t wait for the day that his friends have children that he can to take to the zoo one time and then spend the rest of his life patting himself on the back for it.

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Editor-in-Chief Joey Nolfi sifted through 87 years of Best Picture winners to come up with a formula that gauges Oscar traction. He ranked the films heading into this year's race, so you should check it out.

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RT @joeynolfi: AND ALSO Happy Presidents’ Day to President Natalie Portman at the end of Mars Attacks https://t.co/NrJGzYnAYh